Senate Defeats GOP Anti-Neutrality Measure

Capitol-Hill-The U.S. Senate on Thursday defeated a motion to nullify the Federal Communications Commission's net neutrality rules.

The bill, sponsored by Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison (R-Texas), drew support from 46 senators, while 52 voted against the measure. Even if the Senate had passed the bill, the move would have been largely symbolic because the White House promised a veto.

The rules, passed by the FCC 3-2 last year, prohibit all broadband companies -- wireline and wireless -- from blocking or degrading content or competing apps. The FCC also banned wireline providers from engaging in “unreasonable discrimination” -- which could include paid prioritization deals where companies pay extra for faster delivery.

The regulations are scheduled to take effect on Nov. 20.

The FCC's open Internet rules largely mirror the regime that was in effect through 2005. Until that year, Internet access was considered a telephone service, and Internet service providers generally followed the same common carrier regulations that have long governed telephone companies. But a reclassification of Internet access as an “information” service, which took effect in 2005, paved the way for broadband carriers to stop following common carrier rules -- though almost none did so.

The Senate vote came after lengthy debate on Wednesday, during which Hutchison and other GOP senators denounced the FCC's rules as unnecessary and potentially harmful to the economy. “We must stop job killing regulatory interference by our government,” Hutchison argued.

But Democratic senators, including John Kerry (D-Mass.), Al Franken (D-Minn.) and Jay Rockefeller (D-W.Va.), defended the neutrality regulations, arguing that they preserve the historic openness of the Web. “Net neutrality is the core of the Internet,” Franken said at Wednesday's Senate hearing. “Net neutrality, and the rules the FCC passed, is about keeping the Internet the way it is today, and the way it always has been.”

Neutrality advocates like Free Press, Public Knowledge the ACLU cheered news of Thursday's Senate vote.

“The Senate sent a strong signal today to would-be gatekeepers that the free and open Internet needs to stay that way,” Free Press Action Fund president and CEO Craig Aaron stated. “The American public doesn't want phone and cable companies undercutting competition, deciding which Web sites will work or censoring what people can do online.”

Despite the vote, the rules could still be nixed by the courts.

Verizon has sued to block the regulations, arguing that the FCC lacks authority to regulate broadband because it's considered an “information” service. The same appeals court that will hear Verizon's challenge already ruled in another case that the FCC overstepped its authority by attempting to enforce neutrality principles. In that matter, the appellate court vacated an FCC decision to sanction Comcast for throttling peer-to-peer traffic.

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